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Soyinka and Yoruba Sculpture: Masks of Deification and Symbolism

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Soyinka and Yoruba Sculpture: Masks of Deification and Symbolism DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v2n1.05 Soyinka and Yoruba Sculpture: Masks of Deification and Symbolism Gilbert Tarka Fai University of Maroua, Cameroon Abstract The Yoruba mask is a piece of sculpture that is both artistic and functional. The carved work fulfils one or more of several functions—sacred or profane, personal or communal, serious or satirical. As an object it has only its relatively insignificant quota of vital energy that is found, according to African ontology, in all matter and substance of the visible world- animal, vegetable and mineral. But the Yoruba mask also has a force that extends to the world of spirits and gods. These masks also have the dual effect of transforming the wearer and the ambivalence of serving good and evil ends. This indicates that the Yoruba mask apart from its spiritual essence is a symbol of great complexity and ambiguity. It is from this great community of sculptors and from the ambivalent quality of the mask as image and symbol that some of Wole Soyinka’s creative writings emerge. This paper argues that Wole Soyinka uses his native Yoruba sculpture, and the mask in particular, to dramatise the essential spiritual continuity of human nature through the dramatic appearance of gods and the spirits of the ancestors in the world of the living during the dance of possession. [Key words: Soyinka, Yoruba, sculpture, masks, symbolism.] Traditional Yoruba life is dominated by religion and they are surrounded by innumerable gods and spirits with whom the lives of mortals interact. Below the deities are spirits including the spirits of the departed ancestors. Apart from the supreme deity (Olodumare or Olorun) who is never represented by a carving (because a Yoruba would not know what he looked like), other gods and spirits are represented by masks and statues which are kept in shrines where they are worshipped. Ogun, Soyinka’s favourite god, for example, is always represented with a carving of a snake eternally devouring its own tail. Soyinka was drawn in particular to this god’s ambivalent role. As god of war, Ogun embodies the destructive principle. In addition to his function as god of Iron and Metallurgy, Patron of Hunting and Guardian of the Road, he is also the creative essence. He is at once destroyer and creative impulse. This makes him an enigmatic symbol both in Soyinka’s own creative work and in his criticism. Man in his capacity both for creation and destruction is a reincarnation of this contradictory god. The ancestors are worshipped through the egungun masked figures. The egungun is a cult of ancestors. It is a proof that the present generations of the Living do not stand alone, nor is the individual ever abandoned entirely to the limits of his own powers, for the dead ancestors continue to watch over and guide their descendants. The egungun society is a special custodian of the ancestral spirits. Basically, it is an attempt to reassure people about individual immortality and to diminish the fear of death through the dramatic appearance of the ancestral spirits within the world of men. It should be noted that not all ancestors have masks dedicated to them. When a particular ancestor is selected for worship, a mask is carved for him. The Ifa Society, a cult of divination, decides Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities Volume 2, Number 1, Special Issue, Visual Arts URL of the Issue: http://rupkatha.com/rupkathav2n1.php PDF URL of the article: http://rupkatha.com/V2/n1/SoyinkaandYorubaSculpture.pdf © www.rupkatha.com 45 Soyinka and Yoruba Sculpture: Masks of Deification and Symbolism which dead are to have masks dedicated to them. A member of the egungun is secretly appointed to be mask keeper and dancer. Yoruba wood carvers have always been of prime importance in Western Nigeria. Their carvings of gods and spirits, their followers and ancestors have been described and analysed fascinatingly by such authorities on Yoruba culture as Ulli Beier who says of Yoruba temple carvings: ‘they help the worshippers achieve the calm state of receptiveness that is necessary if the god is to manifest himself during ceremonies.’ Of the carvers themselves, Ulli Beier says: The Yoruba carver represents this heightened state, this intensified experience which is the purpose of Orisha1 worship. The final impression of harmony which the carver achieves is the result of controlled tension, of rigid form imposed on the pressure which seems to come from the carving. (31) The above comments serve to underline the importance and skill of Yoruba carvers but more especially to emphasise the power and life inherent in the mask once it is carved. No wonder that a sculptor plays a major role in one of Soyinka’s plays- A Dance of the Forests. The action in this play revolves around a sculpture- ‘the totem’ which Demoke is invited to carve as part of the celebrations of the ‘Gathering of the Tribes’ (Nigerian Independence celebrations). The totem is to serve as a symbol for the great reunion. It is Demoke’s skill and his remorse for causing his apprentice’s death that Soyinka celebrates in contrast to the skill of hypocrisy, corruption and prostitution exhibited by the other characters. The Mask of God or Spirit In Soyinka’s work the mask is presented as a medium through which gods and spirits become manifest in the world of the living. This occurs in special ceremonies intended for that purpose where the dance of possession becomes incumbent. According to Margaret Laurence (1968), when possession takes place, the spirit or god is believed to be actually and perceptibly present. The dancer’s own spirit is suspended; his spirit momentarily departs—held in abeyance or hiatus and the spirit of the mask has taken over. When the wearer becomes subservient to the spirit of the mask, he is often able to perform with skill greater than his own (20). Laurence’s comments suggests that the dance of possession is a moment when the gods through the agency of man partake in human affairs usually to prophesy or perform acts which humans on their own would be unable to. In A Dance of the Forests during the ‘Dance of Welcome’, the masked humans in a state of possession by different spirits proclaim doom for the new Nigerian nation. The Spirit of Palm for example, envisions hatred, discord and eventual bloodshed: White skeins wove me, I, Spirit of Palm No course I red. I who suckle blackened hearts, know Heads will fall down Crimson in their bed. (64) This predicted chaos was to be confirmed ten years later with the bloody Nigerian civil war of 1970. When the masks are removed, the spirits depart and the human characters come back to normal and can no longer speak with a prophetic tongue. Similarly, they can no longer remember what they said. The masked, 46 Rupkatha Journal Vol 2 No 1 possessed humans who speak in the voice of gods in A Dance of the Forests is a classic example of the ‘god- apparent or god- become man phenomenon. Perhaps it is in The Road that the spectacle of the ‘god-apparent’ is fully exploited. In this play, Soyinka uses the word ‘egungun’ to refer to the mask and its wearer, together, in various stages of possession. The mask by itself, when not being worn by its true wearer is simply the ‘mask’, a thing, a carved object. When the only man who can rightfully wear it puts it on, together they become the egungun. Margaret Laurence points out that with the traditional Yoruba egungun, the state of possession can take place only with the proper ritual, at the time of the festival, and with the accompaniment of the drums which speak the key phrases and establish the pattern and place of the entire procedure. The mask has to be treated in the proper ritualistic manner so that it will be kindly disposed towards the human community. It is always forbidden for anyone except the chief priest to know who dances under any particular mask. It is considered dangerous to go near an egungun. It is unthinkable to stage a masked performance and to bring about a possession without the proper ritual, the right time, the sanctioned means and the priest’s supervision (21-48). What happens in The Road goes contrary to all the above and the consequences are inevitable. The focal character in The Road is an absurdly enigmatic professor who is on a symbolic quest for the Word which he describes in various occasions as ‘companion not to life, but death’ (159); ‘a golden nugget on the tongue’ (180); ‘a terrible fire’ (192); ‘that elusive kernel…the key, the moment of my rehabilitation’ (202) and ‘the scheme’ (204). From these conflicting metaphorical definitions, Bernth Lindfors (1976) concludes that the Word is some form of cabalistic wisdom which is precious, powerful and associated with death and redemption (203). If Lindfors’ definition is anything to go by, Professor’s search may be viewed as a quest for the meaning of existence; or since it is a quest for the essence of death, it may be considered an attempt to seek immortality through the conquest of death itself. Professor believes that the key to immortality lies in the mystery of death, which is a monopoly of the gods. Just before the play opens, Murano in a state of possession has been struck and knocked down by the lorry-driver Kotonu at the moment when he was masquerading as the god Ogun at the annual Drivers’ Festival. Kotonu and his mate Samson hide the body in the back of their lorry (to deceive the angry worshippers) and bring it to town.
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